Gmail also hit by e-mail phishing scheme

Hotmail users aren't the only ones who've been hit by a phishing scheme over the past week. Google told BBC News on Tuesday that Gmail users have also been affected by the hackers who posted passwords online.

The problem is far more widespread than was disclosed on Monday, possibly affecting Yahoo and AOL e-mail accounts as well, according to BBC News.

Google described the issue as an "industrywide phishing scheme." BBC News said it has seen two lists posted online with "more than 30,000 names and passwords" from Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail, and other service providers.

"We recently became aware of an industrywide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for Web-based mail accounts including Gmail accounts," a Google representative told me in an e-mail.

The representative said that Google immediately "forced passwords resets on the affected accounts."

In an e-mail to CNET, a Google representative said that the company had to reset the passwords on fewer than 500 Gmail accounts so far. However, that figure could change.

Despite Google's and Microsoft's awareness of the problem, it doesn't seem that users are out of the woods just yet. Google's representative told CNET that it will continue to force password resets on any newly affected user accounts.

Like Microsoft, Google was quick to point out to the BBC that the phishing scheme was a "scam to get users to give away their personal information to hackers" and not an internal security issue. It didn't say how users fell victim to the scheme.

Google's admission that Gmail users were affected by the phishing scheme comes on the heels of Microsoft acknowledging that over 10,000 Live Hotmail accounts were compromised by the scam. The passwords apparently first hit the Internet on October 1.